“Australian retail sales surged past all expectations in November as consumers splashed out on Apple iPhones and Black Friday promotions, a major boost for an economy that had been struggling with sluggish spending,” Wayne Cole reports for Reuters. “The local dollar jumped almost half a U.S. cent to a three-month peak of $0.7882 as the strength countered concerns consumers had lapsed into a near-permanent depression.”
“Thursday’s figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed retail sales jumped 1.2 percent in November from October, when they rose a solid 0.5 percent,” Cole reports. “That was three times the market forecast and the steepest gain since early 2013.”
“Sales were up 2.9 percent on a year earlier at a record seasonally adjusted high of A$26.38 billion ($20.77 billion). Gains were led by a hefty 4.5 percent rise in household goods and a 2.2 percent increase for other retailing,” Cole reports. “‘Seasonally adjusted sales in both these industries are influenced by the release of the iPhone X and the increasing popularity of promotions in November, including Black Friday sales,’ the ABS said in a note.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: According to the latest smartphone OS data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, in the three months ending November 2017, Apple’s iOS held 43.9% share of the Australian smartphone operating system market, down 2.5% YOY and Android held 55.5% share, up 5.4% YOY.
We’ll see if iOS share this picks up for Apple in Australia in future Kantar reports.
Wonderful news for Apple!. Go Apple, the most hated company and stock.
Re: The Cook-haters who wonder how Apple would be doing with the likes of Jeff Bezos at the helm instead of current management.
Without access to some kind of parallel universe to settle this argument . . . the facts are that in June of 2014 AAPL split 7 for 1, arriving at an adjusted share price of 92.22. Today it closed at 175.28, yielding an average annual increase (dividing by 3.6 years as of today) of 25.1%. I can’t speak for what the growth would have been under JeBez, but my family and I are more than a little happy with current numbers.
Amen Randia
some are just troll but anyone that has really followed cook/apple knows the truth.
There’s no real way we can compare Amazon to Apple but Amazon has Wall Street’s praise and blessings and almost everyone is sure that Amazon has the better CEO and Amazon is a better company than Apple is. Apple is certainly doing well but Amazon has the hearts and minds of Wall Street and the news media. Amazon has become the sweetheart of Wall Street and Apple is seen as nothing but an ugly ex-girlfriend. Apple might as well be dead as far as the big investors are concerned.
Take a look at any of the FANG stocks P/Es and near-term outlook and quickly you’ll see what the big investors think of Apple. I find it quite disheartening as an Apple shareholder.
If you’ve held AAPL this year, you’ve done quite well. No AAPL does not get the Wallstreet Credit it deserves, but no, the big investors have not left. Stop whining.
People are waiting for great deals on black friday. I can’t speak for what the growth would have been under JeBez, but my family and I are more than a little happy with current numbers.